Greetings from The Land Formerly Known As The Land of Very Little Internet (i.e. Mark’s parents’ home in the Sierra foothills). They have upgraded their internet here considerably, although, ironically, their new provider doesn’t support logging in to LiveJournal, so I’m using my mobile hotspot on my iPhone, which never used to get service here, and now it does. There must be a new cell tower somewhere. So, the future comes even to the boonies, if you wait long enough.
Anyway, there have been some miles covered these last few days! I can’t believe it’s only Monday; it feels like a month ago we left Portland, though that was only Friday afternoon. We flew to Oakland, picked up the car at the airport parking lot (got overcharged; I’ll have to deal with that when I get home), and went to have dinner with some Good Friends of Mark’s. They cooked in their outdoor brick oven:
Oh So Much Yum! Also, scrumptious homemade wine was drunk, and sent along with us. Good times.
From there, we drove (very late) out to Fairfield and our economical motel room. For the next day was a wedding in Napa, the original reason for this trip.
Saturday, we got all snazzed up, got in the car, and gave ourselves an hour to make the twenty-minute drive to the meeting point where a series of shuttles were taking guests to the Seekrit Wedding Spot You Cannot Drive To. And….there was construction and traffic and I don’t even know what all, and the cars didn’t go and the cars didn’t go…and it took more than an hour to get there, and we missed the last shuttle.
Much dismayed, we settled in to wait for the Post-Wedding pickup…but then along came a shuttle, 15 minutes after the ceremony was due to start! “I think I can get you guys in,” said the driver, and off we went. Got to the Seekrit Location JUST as the processional was starting…snuck into some seats and saw the whole thing. Hoorah! It was gorgeous and moving and delightful, and the reception afterward was also marvelous, and ran very long, till late in the evening.
But we didn’t get to sleep in Sunday, for we had to get up early and pack up and drive to the El Cerrito Costco and buy food for a party for 30 people (and call my dad from the car along the way to say Happy Father’s Day) and drive to Alameda (getting a bit lost along the way) to Mark’s cousin’s house to set up this party for 30 people (which was to celebrate Mark’s mom’s 80th birthday which we missed because I got shingles in February and Mark’s dad’s 85th birthday which happened while we were at the funeral in Fresno for Mark’s uncle oh and also it was Father’s Day) and then the party happened and it was lovely (and I ducked into the bedroom and called my stepdad to wish him a Happy Father’s Day) and then we helped clean up the party because some fools bought WAY TOO MUCH FOOD and then we took Mark’s parents’ car and our car up here a three-hour drive to the mountains and here we are. I drove with Mark’s mom; Mark came a bit later with his dad; they arrived about 11:30.
Then we all slept until about 11 this morning. There had been some discussion of going for a hike today, hahahhahahaa. It is 4pm and I’ve just finished showering. Also today I: ate breakfast, read the internet, made most of a blog post. 🙂 Mark is about to take a nap. I think we ran our energy reserve tanks WAY past zero.
Tomorrow, we start heading north again, bringing his folks with us. There will be a bit more visiting and the like along the way, but hopefully at a much slower pace. I mean, this was all good stuff, but, wow. Too much.
Hmm. A nap looks kinda good.